Scientific research suggests that wearing a face mask can help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
A new survey confirms that some regions in the US are taking that message seriously more than others.
According to Ipsos Knowledge Panel polling done for Axios, residents of the Northeast, led by New York, said they are wearing face masks at a higher rate than the majority of the country.
Graphic: Renée Rigdon, CNN
The results from the poll with more than 6,000 respondents from over the last month and a half (May 8 to June 22) showed a fairly stable 48% to 51% of Americans wore masks at all times when leaving home. Other pollsters, who have asked analogous questions during the same period, have shown similar results.
In New York, 67% said they wear a face mask at all times when they leave their house. That is the highest percentage for any state for which there were at least 75 respondents.
In general, the Acela corridor is leading the US in wearing masks. At least 60% of residents in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland stated that they were always wearing masks.
New York and the neighboring areas were hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic a few months ago, so it shouldn’t be surprising that there is a clear movement to stem any recurrence of that.
The only other state in the country where more than 60% of residents said they were always wearing masks was California (64%). The Pacific division — which is made up mostly of California — has the highest mask-wearing public (58%) outside of the Northeast.
Other parts of the country don’t cling to mask-wearing like the Northeast. The central part of the country in particular seems unfavorable to wearing masks.
Less than 50% of those in the Midwest — the East and West North Central — say they always wear a mask when leaving the house. Mask-wearing at all times when leaving the house at 34% is quite limited in the West North Central division.
The two other areas where mask-wearing is significantly lower than average are the Mountain division in the West and the East South Central in the South. Less than 40% in either division said to Ipsos that they always put on a mask when outside of their house.
Lastly, the other divisions of the South (South Atlantic and West South Central) are average mask-wearing. This includes Florida and Texas, which are within the margin of error of the national percentage in terms of wearing a mask in public.